Best of Spirits

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Best of Spirits

The Cats Outside

Trust and wanderlust

Kittens on the Loose
If I go outside with my cats,
they tend to hang around.
If they go out without me,
soon, they're nowhere to be found.

When they go out without me, then,
I wonder where they go.
Perhaps it's just as well because
I might not want to know.




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But, seriously, I need to get the weed wacker repaired.




Best of Spirits

Pets Earning Their Keep

Defending the homefront

So this just happened.

While suburbia encroaches, we still live in a rural area. We have three cats, Charlie the golden, Onyxia the black, and Spirit the old gray lady. Weather permitting, we leave the door open a cat's-width for them to go in and out. Sometimes other critters get in, usually flies, but one time a possum! So, the perimeter of our old house is not entirely secure.

Besides the border gaposis, having cats also means fur on comfy chairs (usually covered with a protective sheet when not being used by humans). Having cats means expenses, vet, wet and dry food, and kitty litter. Now and then the cats will bring in one of their hunting trophies, sometimes still alive. We have had to chase after birds, mice, and lizards they've released inside. Also, we humans collect our share of scars from tooth and claw of our feline housemates. There's even the worry that one might not come home, when we gather them in at night. And the heartbreak, when one of them dies, runs deep. You might wonder, with all that trouble and expense, why have cats?

Ours are working farm critters, not merely pampered pets. (I pause to wistfully miss our Defender Doggie.) It's unpleasant to see cardinal feathers on the porch, but we know they also keep the rodent vermin population down (that's foreshadowing), as well as chasing off feral felines encroaching on our territory. Sometimes a frog or a snake gets in the house, and, while they won't eat it, they alert us to it with meowing and a "pointing" stalking pose.

Charlie, sleepingToday we were changing the sheets on the bed, when, out from behind the head of the bed runs a modest-size mouse, right in front of me. Ran under the nearby massage table (one of our few luxuries). I ran over and grabbed Charlie from where he was soundly sleeping, and threw him behind the table, repeatedly telling Charlie to "catch the mouse! Mouse!" Our old cats do have some vocabulary, "mouse" being one word they all seem to recognize. While Charlie sniffed around, I began pulling out storage boxes and baskets stored under the table, although I thought by that point that the mouse had probably scooted further away.

Mouse, running

I was still pulling out boxes when I saw the mouse tail drooping from Charlie's mouth; quick work! I picked Charlie up, telling him not to drop the mouse (heh), and put him out the front door. He sat there a moment; I thought, he's disappointed the chase wasn't any longer. Then he dropped it, but the mouse was at this point well past play mode; dead. So, Charlie began chowing down and I left him to his grisly meal.

When he was ready to come back in, we applauded and praised him.

I'll probably still complain about cleaning the litterbox, but it's just part of the price we pay for having our mighty hunter housemates.




Best of Spirits

Three Cool Cats

Those three blind mice better watch out!

As commented on Ace of Spades Saturday Pet Thread, Sep 19, 2020

I've been threatening to send pix of our cats for so long! Finally got around to it, but only after picking up two new cats!!
Photos credit: Milady Webworker.

Pic #1:

Three cats, Charlie the yellow, Ony the black, and Spirit the gray

Charlie, Ony, and Spirit are our three long-time housecats, about whom I've often told stories on the Pet Thread. I've told their "how we got them" stories in the past, but I will spare you today. They enjoy the comforts of a big rural yard and lots of cushy inside places. Working cats, as I often say, keeping the vermin down, and alerting us when some critter gets in the house that they won't eat.

Pic #2:

Two tiny new kittens

On Saturday before Labor Day, Milady and I made a rare trip to our in-town "office," to pick up some things. As "fortuitous coincidence" would have it, we found a family, heading through town, stopped for a minute in our parking lot; their two young boys were trying to catch the two tiny kittens who had come up to them. We joined in the ensuing comic chase scene (worthy of the great Duck artist Don Rosa).

Guess who ended up with the kits. Hint: not that traveling family.

Not sure what will become of them. Today (day after Labor Day) we have to decide. Our three cats were very rude to them, and we aren't really in a position to take on two new kittens. Daughter and Son-in-Law took them for a night while we were out of town, which became two nights (heh! so far). Their dog really took to them. As did Daughter & SiL.

To be continued. - mindful webworker

That two-headed cat is super cool, btw.
MH: "Has your household increased to 5 cats? All beautiful creatures."

Not our house. Our three old pheline pharts aren't taking new applicants. No whippersnappers in the retirement home.

So, the two kittens are still with Daughter & SiL. Kits have been accepted by the two young frisky dogs, the half-blind old cat, and especially the hoomans. Bonded, y'might say.

The usually-wilder of the two dogs gently plays with and guards the kittens like they're her own babies, nuzzling their bellies and interrupting them if they roughhouse too strongly with each other.

Furthermore, in totally new behavior, that dog now rests a paw (petting) on the old cat as she does the kits. And old cat even seems to appreciate it.

Is there anything kitten therapy can't do!?!

That picture of the kittens with the pair of hands that have seen some living... beautiful.



Best of Spirits

Christmas Webworks Redux 2020

Reflections of Christmas Past

My muse may be retired, or on vacation.
In any case, no new Christmas webworks for 2020.
Here's some from the past


Let Your Aim Be...
...to do your Christmas shopping early.

Filler ad for 1912 Nov 21
Ill, 2014 Jul 15

The Terrible Christmas Song
On a radar screen, a blip…

Video (0:40) - 2015 Dec 24
Also included in Webworkshop #16

Mindful Webworkshop Episode #16 - Christmas
A politically incorrect and culturally inappropriate Christmas show - pop song parodies and original tunes sure to put coal in my stocking.
Preview
YouTube Video (0:32) - 2016 Dec 19
Mindful Webworkshop
Christmas

Video (11:02) - 2016 Dec 25



Special Delivery

UB Comix Christmas Card 1987

That's all I've got. Merry Happy, y'all.



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